White RabbitWhite – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection Education Resource Acknowledgements Education Resource written by John Neylon, writer, curator and art museum education consultant. The author acknowledges the assistance of the Samstag Museum staff and the particular contribution of White Rabbit Educator/Librarian Phyllis Rowlinson who provided valued insights into the artists and artworks and recommendations regarding student research options and teaching strategies. (PR) in text acknowledges particular texts supplied by Phyllis Rowlinson. (BB with page ref.) in text acknowledges source as from the publication ‘The Big Bang. Contemporary Chinese Art from the White Rabbit Collection’, text by Elizabeth Keenan, published by White Rabbit Gallery Ltd, Sydney 00. Published by the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art University of South Australia GPO Box 47 Adelaide SA 500 T 08 8300870 E [email protected] W unisa.edu.au/samstagmuseum Copyright © the author, artists and University of South Australia All images courtesy White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney All rights reserved. The publisher grants permission for this Education Resource to be reproduced and/or stored for twelve months in a retrieval system, transmitted by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying and/or recording only for education purposes and strictly in relation to the exhibition, White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection at the Samstag Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-980775-6-3 Samstag Museum of Art Director: Erica Green Coordinator: Scholarships and Communication: Rachael Elliott Curatorial Assistant: Gillian Brown Samstag Administrator: Jane Wicks Graphic Design: Sandra Elms Design Cover image: Bu Hua The Bhodi Is Not Proven Till There Is Universal Salvation No. 4, 008, giclée print, 00 x 00 cm White Rabbit White– Contemporary Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection Chinese Art Education Collection Resource Education Resource White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection Education Resource: John Neylon About this Education Resource This Education Resource is published to accompany the exhibition White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection 5 July – 30 September 2011 Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art This Education Resource is designed to support learning outcomes and teaching programs associated with viewing the White Rabbit exhibition by: n Providing information about the artists n Providing information about key works n Exploring Indigenous perspectives within contemporary art n Challenging students to engage with the works and the exhibition’s themes n Identifying ways in which the exhibition can be used as a curriculum resource n Providing strategies for exhibition viewing, as well as pre- and post-visit research It may be used in conjunction with a visit to the exhibition or as a pre-visit or post-visit resource. 3 White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection Education Resource Contents 1 Background briefing 5 About this exhibition 5 2 Exploring the works 6 Bai Yiluo 6 Bu Hua 8 Shen Liang 0 Sun Furong 12 Wang Zhiyuan 4 Zhou Xiaohu 6 Wu Junyong 8 Cang Xin 0 Chen Zhuo + Huang Keyi 22 Dong Yuan 4 Yan Baishen 6 Shi Jindian 8 3 Exploring the exhibition: Themes 30 Theme 1: Symbolism and ritual 30 Theme 2: Humour and satire 30 Theme 3: Everyday life 30 Theme 4: Self portraiture 3 Theme 5: Belief 3 Theme 6: Materiality 3 Theme 7: Reality 3 4 For teachers 33 Planning a successful visit to White Rabbit 33 5 Get started 34 In-exhibition engagement activities 34 6 Further research 35 Curatorial frameworks 35 Art in context 36 Resources 37 7 List of works 38 Year level This Resource is primarily designed to be used by secondary to senior secondary visual art teachers and students. Components can be adapted for use by upper primary and also tertiary students. 4 White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection Education Resource 1 Background briefing About this exhibition White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection In 2011, the Year of the Rabbit, the Samstag Museum is presenting a major exhibition of selected works from the White Rabbit Collection, for Adelaide Festival Centre’s 2011 OzAsia Festival. The White Rabbit exhibition provides an exciting introduction to the diversity and power of contemporary art practice in China, showcasing works in very different media – painting, sculpture, animation, new media and installation. Featured works explore China’s rapidly changing society, from Mao’s oppressive Cultural Revolution to the excesses and exuberance of China’s economic boom. What is White Rabbit? The White Rabbit Collection is one of the world’s largest and most significant collections of contemporary Chinese art. It was founded by Kerr and Judith Neilson and it focuses on works produced after 2000. The origins of the collection go back to the late 1990s, when Judith Neilson engaged Wang Zhiyuan, a Chinese artist then living in Sydney, as her art tutor. He introduced her to the astonishing explosion of creativity taking place in China in the wake of the ‘Opening Up’ that had begun in 1989. Judith Neilson and her husband then decided to open a gallery that would make the exciting world of contemporary Chinese art available to all Australians. The White Rabbit Gallery, a converted former knitting factory near Sydney’s Central Station, has four floors of exhibition space as well as a theatrette, a library and a teahouse. Only a fraction of the collection is on show at any time. The entire contents of the gallery are rehung twice a year. Further information: www.whiterabbitcollection.org Participating artists Bai Yiluo, Bu Hua, Shen Liang, Sun Furong, Wang Zhiyuan, Zhou Xiaohu, Wu Junyong, Cang Xin, Chen Zhuo + Huang Keyi, Dong Yuan, Yan Baishen and Shi Jindian. 5 White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection Education Resource 2 Exploring the works Bai Yiluo b. 1968, Luoyang, Henan Province. Self taught. Lives and works in Beijing. ‘All the changes in China could influence me. But most of the time my inspiration comes from my life experience.’ Artist statement, Guide Look, Selected Works from The White Rabbit Collection, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, 2009, p 16. Perspectives Bai Yiluo was born in 1968 in Luoyang, a mining town in central China.�������������������������� He originally worked in a factory but moved to Beijing to be closer to the contemporary art scene. While holding a day job at a photographic studio he taught himself the basics of photography. A series of photographic-based investigations involving the pasting of hundreds of passport identity photographs onto symbols of wealth and power (such as the American dollar) effectively launched his career as a contemporary artist. Today he is recognised not only for his photographic work but also sculptures and installations. A consistent theme in his art is the relationship between institutional power and ordinary people whose work enables the wealthy and powerful classes to enjoy a privileged existence. ‘Like a steamroller, Bai Yiluo levels the great and the small, and envisions global connections often overlooked. In his earlier works, usually collage-based, he linked the east and the west, the rich and the humbled, by pasting anonymous Chinese passport ID photos onto symbols of greatness: the American dollar, mummified emperors. While these monochromatic works required painstaking manual labour to produce, his later stuff has greater visual impact.’ www.creativehunt.com/shanghai/articles/profiled-Bai-Yiluo ‘Bai Yiluo’s works often incorporate photography and traditional sculptural techniques, and media disparate in their ancient and contemporary connotations. Bai draws upon these to develop installations which reflect the human condition as a cyclical struggle, tortuously beautiful and poetically triumphant.’ www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk See also: www.chinesische-gegenwartskunst.de/pages/pressetexte/bai-yiluo-fate-no-4-en.php Work Recycling, 2008, mixed media, 30 x 250 x 200 cm ‘His installation Recycling (008) takes literally the common saying “I gave my heart away.” What if someone really did decide to sell his or her heart, Bai Yiluo asks, “to the first guy who came around collecting rubbish for recycling”? His huge, anatomically exact fibreglass heart is roped onto the back of a garbage man’s tricycle cart.’ Artist statement, December 2008, www.artefacts.net Quoted in Guide Look: Selected Works from the White Rabbit Collection, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, 2009, p 16. ‘The heart on wheels is an image filled with meaning – and with contradictions. It suggests not only the devaluing of love but the heart transplants that sustain life, as well as the illicit trade in human organs for which China has become notorious.’ From Guide Look: Selected Works from the White Rabbit Collection, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, 2009, p 16. 6 White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection Education Resource Bai Yiluo, Recycling, 2008, mixed media, 30 x 250 x 200 cm Framing questions and research n How do you feel about the idea that everything, even a heart, is just an object which can be bought and sold and eventually discarded? n In various cultures, the emotions (including love) are regarded as being associated with or located within different organs or areas of the body. What can your research tell you about this? n Does the comment that the artist’s installations ‘reflect the human condition as a cyclical struggle, tortuously beautiful and poetically triumphant’ alter or expand your response to or interpretation of this work in any way? n The term ‘the human condition’ is frequently used to refer to some kind of truth or reality which applies to humanity in general. Do you consider that Recycle expresses or is concerned with something like this? n Can you think of ways in which the ideas within this work could be explored in other ways? n Do you think the artist would be surprised or disappointed with your personal response to this work? n Do you agree with the artist that ‘the absurdity of such a scenario (Recycle) is far less absurd than many of life’s realities’? 7 White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection Education Resource 2 Exploring the works Bu Hua b.